Up ahead, the passage widened. Smaller ants of both colors scurried past, carrying wriggling grubs or fresh, wet eggs gently in their mandibles. Their guard nudged them again, urgently.

“What? You?” Terry shouted from behind them.

Rowan turned. Terry staggered toward them, nudged by a significantly larger ant. His guard took up almost the whole hallway, its thorax brushing against the hallway’s ceiling.

“Hey, A… Terry,” Rowan said. Damn, I just can’t make myself call him Arthur. It’s too stupid.

Guess he didn’t catch on that I was Leaf, after all. Not that he was a great student back in the day, so I guess I shouldn’t expect it.

Terry scowled. “How is trash like you still alive?”

“And kicking. And, may I add, caught by the same ants who caught you, oh high and mighty Hero,” he finished smugly.

Terry’s face reddened. “You!”

The ant behind him hissed and pinched him between its mandibles, lightly. Blood drained from Terry’s face, from bright red to pale white, and he froze.

“They’re taking us to kill us. We should have escaped while we had the chance,” Kaidu hissed in his ear.

“Calm down. There’s no guarantee,” Rowan said, but sweat dripped down his back. Did I make the wrong choice? Maybe we should have tried to run. There was a fresh breeze. Maybe we could’ve run for it before the other big ants showed up.

Run for it, faster than the fire-breathing ant right next to us? Yeah, that worked so well against the combat classes earlier, Rowan mocked himself. If we ran, we were dead. This way… we have a chance. However infinitesimal, we have a chance.

Moisture welled up in the air, thick and choking. A strange, sweet smell came along with it. Underfoot, the floor grew moist. Mud squelched between his toes. He lifted his shirt over his nose and high-stepped, squishing down on mud with each step. Gotta make sure I bring good shoes for the second floor.

He glanced at Kaidu. Stoic, he marched along. If he noticed the stench, he didn’t show it.

What, am I the only one who noticed?

“Ugh, what is that?” Terry asked.

Rowan whipped around, then looked at Kaidu. Kaidu’s mouth hung open slightly, and his nostrils narrowed. He snorted. Playing it cool, huh?

Darkness eclipsed them. Faint light glowed from mushrooms along the wall. A round chamber opened up, floor completely damp, the scent so thick as to be cloying. Small ants skittered all around them, hurrying here and there, busy. A dozen large ants, as large as the one behind Terry, stood along the wall, looming over them.

Against the far wall lounged the largest ant of all. Large as a school bus, she sprawled on her side. Her abdomen took up most of the room, and a steady stream of pearlescent eggs tumbled from her rear and piled up in the corner of the room.

Terry choked back vomit.

Worker ants scurried back and forth, retrieving the eggs and vanishing into the tunnels with them. Others scurried to the giant ant’s mouth, delivering globules of water and portions of mushroom. She chewed steadily, head lying on the floor, massive black eyes gazing at her tiny domain.

Rowan swallowed. The Queen.

Her antennae twitched. She lifted her head slightly and chittered, but this time, words filtered through into Rowan’s mind.

Little workers. You have made the fruitless farm bear fruit. For that, I thank you.

Before Rowan, the scene changed. He stood in the midst of the mushroom room again, but this time, the empty mushroom space he’d worked on burst with tiny mushroom sprouts. They arced upward, growing larger before his eyes, spreading into leafy layers.

The image ended, and he was back in the Queen’s room. She heaved herself up. Her spindly legs barely supported her massive body. It drooped from the joints, almost soggy.

Kaidu’s scissors reappeared. Rowan put out a hand. “She doesn’t mean any harm. Can’t you hear her?”

“Hear her?” Kaidu asked.

Rowan glanced at her. Could only I hear that?

The Queen reached out her antennae. Gently, she touched Rowan’s forehead, then reached out for Kaidu’s. Kaidu flinched, then forced himself to stand still and accept the touch.

The voice echoed in Rowan’s head again. I give you my people’s blessing.

Hidden Quest Completed: The Queen’s Larder. Reward: 2000 EXP and Title: Ant’s Blessing.

Rowan blinked. He looked at Kaidu, who stared back at him. “That was a hidden quest?”

Kaidu bit his lip. “Hidden quests are usually only given by conscious races. Most get reset when the Tower resets a floor, but Megafauna Forest almost never gets reset. It’s been years. Since the last Hero-King passed through, I believe. I guess… no one ever found out that the ants had consciousness.”

Rowan stared at the Queen. He bowed, suddenly. If I wasn’t a Gardener, would I have figured it out? I wouldn’t have had the tools to fix the mushrooms, even if I had. I only passed this hidden quest because I’m a Gardener, because of my skills.

Maybe… it’s not so bad to be a Gardener after all. I have Prune—it’s not useless in combat. There will be stronger skills later, as long as I press on. I’ve been too down on the class all this time because I’ve never taken it seriously.

Just like everyone else, I assumed support classes were useless, but—they aren’t. They aren’t, and I’m not. I need to take a good look at the potential of Gardener, instead of focusing on its detriments.

“I… thank you,” he said to the Queen. For the quest, for the blessing, but for opening my eyes most of all.

You are welcome, my child. We all need our eyes opened from time to time.

Rowan startled. The Queen could hear that?

If she heard, she didn’t react this time. “Man,” he sighed.

Kaidu nodded, eyes glazed over. He raised a hand to his chin musingly and tipped his head at a display only visible to him.

Leveling up? We need all the help we can get. Rowan pulled up his own interface. His EXP bar once again stretched past the edge of the screen. 3,385 EXP.

That confirms it: I can gain EXP, I just can’t apply it except under… some sort of condition. He pulled out his notebook and noted it down, then put it back away.

“What? You guys got rewarded? Then, what about me?” Terry stepped forward eagerly.

The Queen plopped back down on her bed, resting her heavy head on a raised dais. To the monster who slayed so many of my children, I give only death.

Her bodyguards stepped forward from the walls, hissing angrily, and marched toward Terry. Terry flinched back, only to bump into the ant who’d pushed him here, which hissed and snapped at him. He darted out of its reach and narrowly dodged as its mandibles clicked shut behind him.

“What did she say?” Terry shrieked.

“She said she wants to be friends,” Rowan snickered.

“Really?” Terry asked.

Fire spouted from one of the bodyguard ants’ mouths. Terry leaped out of range. “Fuck you! You liar.”

The waist-high ant backed Rowan and Kaidu into a corner, keeping them safe from the bodyguard ants. Rowan glanced at his muddy feet and felt a surge of relief. Stepping on that ant was so stupid. Good thing I got rid of the evidence.

Underfoot, the floor trembled. Dust fell from the sky, and the ant hill shuddered. A female voice echoed from afar. “Arthur, are you there?”

“Lancelot! It’s me!” Terry shouted back, excited. His eyes gleamed, and he changed his stance. The next ant to charge at him ran face-first into Terry’s fist. It flew backward and crashed against the wall, its face crumpled in on itself.

The anthill shuddered again. Cracks darted up the walls around them. Rowan covered his head.

Boom!